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Rice Women’s Basketball topped by WKU, falls to 0-2 in CUSA

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Rice women’s basketball took an early lead but wasn’t able to close it out, falling at home to Western Kentucky for their second straight C-USA defeat.

After a program-best 9-0 start, Rice women’s basketball’s last game before Christmas was an uncharacteristic loss to Middle Tennesee. Afterward, head coach Lindsay Edmonds was adamant it would not be the new norm.

“I’m going to remember this feeling. I hope the players remember this feeling,” she said. “We’re ready to get back to work so that we don’t feel this feeling too often.”

Early on it seemed like the team was cognizant of that warning. The Owls were at their best from the jump, outscoring WKU 26-16 in the opening quarter, but it wouldn’t be quite that easy. WKU would cut the Rice lead to one at the half, setting up a tight ballgame down the stretch.

Katelyn Crosthwait tied the game with two minutes to go on a big three-point shot. No longer staked with a double-digit lead, Rice was going to have to up their execution if they wanted to walk out of Tudor Fieldhouse with a win. Unfortunately, turnovers and missed free throws will make Rice wait at least two more days to get that ugly taste of defeat out of their mouths.

The Owls were 5-of-10 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, finishing 13-0f-21 (62 percent) at the line for the game. They turned the ball over 21 times, including twice in the final minute, marring a winnable game.

Spotlight | Kennedy Clifton

The depth of this roster continues to impress with relatively new faces emerging for big moments and big games at every turn. On Thursday night it was Kennedy Clifton’s turn to shine. She finished with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting (2-of-6 from three) with one rebound and one assist. On a quiet night from some of the Owls’ typical scorers, Clifton’s contributions were crucial.

Final Box | WKU 79 – Rice 74

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball will have one last home game to close out the year, hosting UTEP on New Year’s Eve. That’s scheduled to be a 2:00 p.m. tip-off at Tudor Fieldhouse. It will be broadcast on CUSAtv.

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Kings of the Hill: Rice Basketball knocks off WKU

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Rice basketball fell behind early, but caught fire when it mattered, upsetting Western Kentucky to earn a big road win.

A season ago, Rice basketball gave Western Kentucky a good half of a game at E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, KY. The second half, though, was all Hilltoppers, who seemed to have another gear the Owls just could not match. Rice got their road rematch with WKU on Thursday night and while it was indeed a tale of two halves, Rice made sure it was the second stanza that shouted the loudest.

It wouldn’t start pretty, though. Western Kentucky opened the game with a 10-0 explosion. With six minutes left in the first half, Rice trailed 29-16. The defense had held in key moments, but the offense hadn’t found its shooting stroke and was held without a field goal in the first 10 minutes of play. Nothing was falling… until it was.

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Trailing by 10 points at the break, Rice took off. The Owls shot a dismal 21.9 percent from the floor in the first half, making just five of 19 from three. “You’re not going to beat anyone shooting 21 percent,” head coach Scott Pera quipped post game, noting one important caveat “[In] previous years when we didn’t shoot well, it affected our defense. This group is different.”

Still in the game because of that defense, Rice started to catch fire. In the second half, Rice shot 58.1 percent from the floor and made nine of 15 three-pointers, including a sequence in which Travis Evee, Quincy Olivari and Cameron Sheffield went back-to-back-to-back to put Rice in front by seven under six minutes to play.

Western Kentucky lost their leading scorer Dayvion McKnight, but managed to tie the game up with 90 seconds to go. Rice would go up by one before Travis Evee made the defensive play of the night, stealing back the basketball and knocking down a pair of three throws to take a three-point lead with under 10 seconds to play. Rice would hold on and clinch Pera’s first ever win over the Hilltoppers.

Player Spotlight | Travis Evee

Part of last season’s prolific scoring duo with Carl Pierre, Evee had taken somewhat of a secondary spot behind Quincy Olivari early on this season. Olivari had been hot and Evee had done his job, getting the ball in his hands. But it always felt like just a matter of time before Evee — who hadn’t reached the 20-point mark since November 21 — was going to go off again.

Evee led all scorers with 24 points and was a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe, including a pair of game-sealing shots down the stretch. He also added six rebounds and five assists. It was his best performance of the season and the Owls wouldn’t have been able to do what they did without him on the court on Thursday night.

Final Box | Rice 81 – WKU 78

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice basketball will finish 2022 with a New Year’s Eve tilt in the desert against UTEP, the second and final game of their current road trip. That game is scheduled for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off on CUSAtv.

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Rice Athletics: Where do women’s sports rank in ACC? — December Patreon Q&A

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Rice Athletics has faired extremely well in women’s sports in Conference USA. Can they maintain that success in the American Conference?

There were so many good questions submitted in our last Q&A request at the tail end of the Rice football season and this one deserved its own acknowledgment. With football finished and the early signing period in the books, now was the perfect time to take a closer look at another good question that came in relating to sports beyond football in the Owls’ new home, specifically the women’s sports. We tackle that in this month’s Patreon Q&A.

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Historic Rice football recruiting class to send Owls “soaring to new heights”

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Another top-flight Rice football recruiting class is in the books and like many beforehand, it carries some history-making swagger.

“Today was a great day for the Rice Owls,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said as he opened up his Early Signing Period press conference. “We believe this class will take us soaring to new heights.”

The wording might have changed from year-to-year, but the refrain sure sounded the same. Rice was making waves on the recruiting front, and the best was yet to come.

It took a year or two to get things rolling, but the rhythm of the Rice football recruiting machine continues to amplify. Now, for the third time under head coach Mike Bloomgren, the Owls have made history.

If it feels like this story has been told before, that’s because it has. Under Bloomgren, the 2020 signing class was, at the time, the highest-rated recruiting class in program history. Then, two cycles later, the Owls broke that record with a new best-ever haul with the 2022 class. And now, again, Rice football recruiting has made history.

The rankings will fluctuate some between now and February when the traditional signing day occurs, but as things currently stand, the 2023 class is the No. 80 class in the nation, the highest ranking in school history. When it comes to average recruit rating, the class is second by fractions of a point to the 2022 class, but that could change when newcomers like transfer quarterback JT Daniels are accounted for.

And that’s one other noticeable change as the history-making continues. Daniels, a former high school national player of the year and five-star recruit, has signed with Rice. Daniels is the highest-rated signee in program history. He surpasses four-star commitment quarterback-turned-wide receiver Luke McCaffrey, who was also brought in by Bloomgren and his staff.

More: 2023 Rice Football Recruiting class early signing period live blog

On the high school front, the Owls added linebacker Ty Morris and defensive end Joseph Mutombo in this class. Both are among the 10 highest-rated signees in program history, five of which have been signed by this staff in the past five cycles.

No matter where you look, it’s all coming up Owl. “We were trending on Twitter,” recruiting director Marco Regalado mentioned, specifically addressing the late night announcement that Daniels was heading to South Main. “People were talking about the Rice Owls, and that’s recruiting. That helps.”

It’s going to take more than some social media shout outs to turn positive recruiting momentum into results. Regalado and the Rice staff know that as well as anyone. But it wouldn’t be fair to them not to acknowledge how they raised their level of recruiting as they prepare for a big test next season when they move to the AAC.

“What we recruited in the past to compete in that conference is not going to work in the next one. We saw that every year when we played Houston and how athletic they were across the street,” Bloomgren said. “Now, also playing Houston this year and being able to hit them in the mouth a little bit … gives us a lot of hope that as long as we’re signing the right kids from an athletic standpoint, we can make some noise in that conference.”

The Owls have made just about as much noise as they could on the recruiting front. Up next? The AAC.

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Rice Football Recruiting: JT Daniels to transfer to Owls

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Former five-star recruit JT Daniels is the newest member of the 2023 Rice Football recruiting class, starting the early signing period with a bang.

The 2023 Rice Football recruiting class got off to a roaring start on the eve of the Early Signing Period. First reported by Pete Thamel, former five-star quarterback JT Daniels is set to transfer to Rice.

Even before his inclusion in the rankings, the 2023 class was already trending toward the highest rated in program history. Now Daniels — who incidentally will become the highest-rated player to ever play for Rice football since recruiting rankings were introduced in the early 2000s —  will send that rankings score even higher.

Daniels initially committed to USC out of high school and has since had stints at Georgia and West Virginia. He helped the Bulldogs win a national title in his time in Athens and brings 45 career touchdown passes and just shy of 7,000 passing yards. He’s 17-12 as a starter, most recently starting 10 games with the Mountaineers last season.

Rice has taken swings at relatively big quarterback names in the Transfer Portal before under head coach Mike Bloomgren, but this is arguably the biggest windfall the Owls have had at the position yet, based purely on the talent and resume Daniels brings with him to South Main. It’s also worth noting, as Thamel reported, Bloomgren had recruited Daniels before.

Daniels provides Rice with an influx of talent at the most important position on the field, a position Rice has struggled to find consistency at under Bloomgren thus far. If things work out for the best, all parties might have found exactly the pairing they need for a productive future in the American Athletic Conference

There’s more… Stay tuned to our Early Signing Period live blog for live updates on the 2023 class as it unfolds. Who knows, maybe there are some more fireworks coming?

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